Kyle Meinert

Recent Posts by Kyle Meinert:

Hopefully this isn’t new news to you but the deadline to submit your information off of your OSHA 300a to OSHA directly is coming up! This deadline is separate from posting your 300a in a conspicuous location at your facility. This regulation requires you to visit the OSHA Injury Tracking Application (ITA) via their website and submit your information digitally for each establishment. Here are few FAQs that may help you on this process.

On October 11, 2018 OSHA issued a Standard Interpretation to clarify its position on the new recordkeeping rule’s anti-retaliation provisions that were put into place in 2016. Essentially, they completely reversed their position on previous limitations with safety incentive programs and post-incident drug testing.

According to the memo, OSHA believes that safety incentive programs and post-incident drug testing are generally not put into place to penalize employees for reporting injuries. Rather, they are implemented to promote the safety and health in the workplace.

OSHA recently released its 10 most frequently cited violations in 2017.

Fall protection: 6,072 citations—Falls from ladders and roofs still account for the majority of injuries at work, and the first step in eliminating or reducing falls is to identify all hazards and decide how to best protect employees.

Hazard communication: 4,176 citations—This standard governs hazard communication to employees about chemicals that are both produced or imported into the workplace. Most violations concern the failure to develop a written hazard training program or failure to provide a Safety Data Sheet for all workplace chemicals.

The deadline to submit your OSHA 300A information electronically is December 31st, 2017. For the first time ever, OSHA will have its teeth into some very compelling data about your organization's safety program.

Who does this impact?

Establishments with 250 or more employees and establishments with 20-249 employees that are classified in certain industries with historically high rates of occupational injuries and illnesses will be required to submit the information off of the company’s 300A forms.

After many roll backs and talks of elimination, OSHA’s Injury Tracking Application (ITA) website is now live. As many of you remember, this is the first year that we will have to directly submit the information off of our OSHA 300a, 300, 301 logs directly to OSHA via the ITA. The current deadline to submit is December 1st, 2017.

OSHA originally set an enforcement date of June 23, but has delayed it to September 23 of this year. They delay is due to OSHA wanting "to conduct additional outreach and provide educational materials and guidance for employers", but it is likely this delay will lead to a cut of this potential new standard. So - what should employers do?

On March 23rd, the Senate along with the House voted to overturn OSHA's final ruling that addressed employers' obligation to make and maintain accurate records of work-related injury and illness data. With a 50-48 vote, the Senate passed a joint resolution disapproving the dubbed "Volks" rule, which OSHA issued in the final days of the Obama Administration.

Yesterday was the final day that the Texas lawsuit against the OSHA anti-retaliation and discrimination rule could have pushed off the rule to a later date. However, a judge denied the preliminary injunction that would have delayed the enforcement from taking effect as scheduled. As a result of this ruling. the final rule went into effect on December 1, 2016.

OSHA recently announced its top ten most frequently cited safety violations for workplace safety with its top category including almost 7,000 violations. Do you know how to avoid these common pitfalls when it comes to your employees' health and safety? We share ten tips to avoid these top ten OSHA violations.

Subscribe to our weekly blog

HNI works with high-performing companies to help them address the hidden risks in their business and avoid The Insurance Dependency Trap. This is done by proactively DE-RISKING their business so they can be less dependent on insurance.

HNI also offers the basic services of insurance and employee benefits. HNI has offices in Milwaukee, Chicago, and Minneapolis.